— WWE announced Monday that referee Mike Chioda has been suspended for 30 days due to a violation of their Talent Wellness Program. According to a company source, he may have failed his test last week, but officials delayed suspending him because they wanted him to appear at SummerSlam. It was not revealed what Chioda failed for, but a company source said “the other referees are sweating.”

— Seldomly seen Raw Superstar Tyler Reks was asked on Twitter whether he’s disgusted with his lack of television time in recent months.

He replied, “Frustrated, yes. But even more determined to seize my opportunity when it comes. It drives me to work hard in practice.”

Reks has yet to compete on television since being drafted to the Raw brand in April.

source: F4WOnline.com

— WWE officials went to great lengths to keep the arrivals of both CM Punk and Jim Ross a secret before they aired on Raw. Both talents were hidden from almost everyone in the organization. They were sent to different hotels from everyone else in fear that someone would see them and relay it online. Neither came into the Hampton Coliseum until they were given the cue to appear, both being sequestered somewhere on the premises. They were not even on the sixth and final script for the show and aside from those who had to directly interact with them on television, all performers weren’t aware of either of talent being in Hampton, Virginia. Ironically, the arena itself was advertising Punk for the event.

— Tyler Reks, who has portrayed a heel character since debuting last October on the SmackDown brand, went on Twitter to defend himself for congratulating Rey Mysterio on his WWE Championship victory on Monday’s Raw.

Reks wrote, “Lotta talk about me celebrating Rey’s win with everyone last night. Bottom line is that Rey is my friend & I wanted to say congrats. No crime in that.”

— WWE Hall of Famer Harley Race is advertised to host SmackDown live events on August 27th, 28th and 29th in the state of Missouri as WWE stops in Cape Girardeau, Springfield and St. Joseph.

source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

– WWE will tape tonight’s NXT and this week’s SmackDown from Philadelphia, PA tonight. Confirmed for TV is an appearance by Triple H and more on Mark Henry’s recent devastation. Advertised locally is Randy Orton vs. World Heavyweight Champion in a Street Fight.

– Last week’s July 22 episode of SmackDown scored a 1.89 cable rating, the program’s best mark since May 20—also a 1.89.

SmackDown had not scored in the 1.80 range since May 27, with the number fluctuating between 1.63 and 1.77 during that time.

Friday’s show averaged 2,821,000 viewers over the course of two hours.

— Tyler Reks, who has portrayed a sinister heel character since debuting last October on the SmackDown brand, was among the numerous babyfaces celebrating Rey Mysterio’s WWE Championship celebration last night on Raw. To add further confusion, he performed as both a babyface and heel at this past weekend’s live events.

(Credit to PWInsider.com for the SmackDown ratings data)

— PWInsider.com reports that Kharma is pregnant. According to F4WOnline.com, it is believed that she will be out “for over nine months.”

The former TNA Women’s Knockout Champion was scripted to break down into tears on Monday’s Raw, which the announcers described as a nervous breakdown. The angle was done to remove her from television for the time being.

— Tyler Reks is holding a contest in which one winner will received a autographed 8×10 and the opportunity to test his or her skills online with the Raw Superstar in a game of Halo Reach.

He detailed the contest on his Twitter account: “GET PWND! Take a pic of you and your home made T-Reks paraphernalia and send it to therekkingcrew@gmail.com! We’ll pick the top 3. Winner gets an online gaming session with T-Reks at Halo Reach & an autographed 8×10. Runners up get autographed 8×10’s. Contest ends next Monday 5/30/11.”

— On August 6th and 7th, former WWE Diva Maria Kanellis appears Glamourcon at the Crowne Plaza O’Hare 5440 North River Road Rosemont, Illinois. Visit www.GlamourCon.com for more information.

— Vickie Guerrero introduced the “new and improved” Dolph Ziggler on Monday’s episode of Raw as he unveiled a freshly trimmed head of brown hair just before facing Evan Bourne.

The former WWE World Heavyweight Champion is not thrilled with his new ‘do as he wrote the following on his personal Facebook account the morning after the show: “I feel like ‘bender’ from Futurama, when they chopped off his antenna….”

— Tyler Reks is in action on this week’s episode of WWE Superstars as he faces JTG. Also featured is Maryse vs. Natalya and Mark Henry vs. Ted DiBiase.

The episode is available here.

— Alicia Fox has replaced Melina on the last leg of Raw’s ongoing tour of Europe. The brand’s tour concludes Saturday in Doha, Qatar.

— Following tonight’s TNA Genesis pay-per-view broadcast, Mr. Anderson and referee Earl Hebner celebrated and played to the audience.

— TNA Genesis was a trending worldwide topic tonight on Twitter. Matt Hardy, who debuted at the event, also trended, but only amongst U.K. users. Tyler Reks began trending worldwide immediately following Hardy’s debut, apparently because Hardy’s new look drew comparisons to the WWE star.

— TNA will be taping episodes of iMPACT! and Xplosion Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida.

— Nothing is official yet regarding the host city for Lockdown.

(source: PWInsider.com)

— Tyler Reks noted today on Twitter that a deviated septum he suffered during a match in Turkey has been reset.

“At least I can breathe now,” he added.

— It has been confirmed that in addition to Chris DeJoseph, creative team members John Piermini and Dan Matalaga have also parted way with the organization. Piermini left the company on his own a few weeks ago, while Matalaga was released around the same time. (source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)

— WWE issued a survey Thursday asking fans to give their thoughts on the Survivor Series and how themed pay-per-view events have affected interest in watching them.

— Rey Mysterio was originally scheduled to face Alberto Del Rio at Saturday’s WWE Fan Appreciation Supershow in Hartford, Connecticut, but Triple H worked the bout instead. The SmackDown Superstar missed the event because he is dealing with an inner ear injury that is preventing him from taking bumps.

— It was announced at WWE’s Fan Appreciation Supershow that tickets for the Royal Rumble go on sale this Saturday. The event takes place on January 30, 2011 at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.

— Today is Tyler Reks’ birthday. He turns 32 years old.

— Jillian Hall announced on her Twitter account Saturday that she is taking a break from World Wrestling Entertainment airwaves to work as a trainer for the company’s up-and-coming female talent.

“Taking a break to sharing my knowledge with the younger ladies,” she wrote. “Hoping to guide them in the right direction…Just wanna put rumors to rest.”

It was reported last week that WWE officials had decided to remove Hall from the main roster and assign her a trainer role within the organization.

— Kofi Kingston, who was featured on numerous commercial advertisements promoting the debut of SmackDown of Syfy, was noticeably absent from Friday’s show. The Ghanaian grappler was actually on hand for the event as he took part in a dark match before the live broadcast, defeating Tyler Reks. (source: PWInsider.com)

— Viewers can catch replays of WWE SmackDown on mun2 every Saturday night at 7:00 and 11:00 p.m. The program can also been seen in high-definition on Universal HD at 9:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m.

— Jim Ross wrote on his official website that it’s unlikely he’ll return to working WWE television on weekly basis in response to a reader who asked if he’ll be paired with Jerry “The King” Lawler again.

“I don’t think that WWE is interested in putting me back on weekly TV and all the travel that comes along with it at this time,” Ross wrote. “Would I love to work with King again? Certainly. Is this my call? Nope. Do I think that I will ever be paired with Lawler again on a regular basis? Highly unlikely.”

— WWE Hall of Famer “Rowdy” Roddy Piper will be appearing in a wrestling-themed episode of the crime drama Cold Case airing tonight on CBS at 10:00 p.m. Playing a character named “Sweet Sil,” Piper bleached his hair blonde for the role.

— Tyler Reks is on the road this weekend with the SmackDown brand. He beat Jimmy Wang Yang at yesterday’s SmackDown live event in Stockton, California.

— Some within the company wanted to do something to honor the legacy of ECW on its final broadcast, including bringing back names from the past for cameo appearances, but the edict was that it was much more important to promote WWE NXT and move away from ECW as soon as possible.

— Matches scheduled to take place on tomorrow night’s episode of WWE Superstars on WGN America are as follows:

* Rey Mysterio vs. Mike Knox
* Gail Kim vs. Katie Lea Burchill
* Evan Bourne and Primo vs. Carlito and Chavo Guerrero

— Last night’s dark match saw Jimmy Wang Yang beat Tyler Reks.

(source: PWInsider.com)

— Before James Roday and Dulé Hill guest host Raw, ask them and John Cena (who guest stars on Wednesday’s season premiere of Psych) questions for an online chat tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. EST on WWE.com. You can submit questions at the following link.

— Drew McIntyre appeared fine at last night’s SmackDown/ECW live event in Hammond, Indiana after reportedly suffering a dislocated patella during his match at last Tuesday’s SmackDown taping.

It was announced this past Friday on SmackDown that McIntyre will be defending his Intercontinental Championship against John Morrison in a No Disqualification Match on this week’s show.

— It would appear that Tyler Reks’ embarrassing plane incident two weeks ago in Green Bay is now water under the bridge considering that he garnered a victory over Goldust at last night’s SmackDown/ECW live event. The sparingly seen ECW star has been trying out his new found heel persona at non-televised events in recent weeks and is simply waiting to be reintroduced to the masses.

— Developmental wrestler Johnny Curtis is once again on the road this week with WWE. He came up short last night in a match against Chris Masters.

— As announced this afternoon, World Wrestling Entertainment came to terms on the release of SmackDown performer Eric Escobar. WWE is apparently not through culling talent as Wrestling Observer editor is reporting that more releases are expected to be made over the next few days and/or weeks.

WWE has parted ways with seven performers so far this year including — besides Escobar — Dino Carter, DJ Gabriel, Lennox McEnroe, Leroy Morgan, Lift Sawyer and Sweet Papi Sanchez.

— WWE sound engineer Marc Lanciaux has deleted his Twitter account after it garnered attention regarding a story he relayed about ECW performer Tyler Reks asking to be removed from a flight leaving Green Bay last Wednesday.

— WWE has revealed the artwork for its upcoming DVD release on SmackDown Superstar John Morrison, John Morrison – Rock Star. You can view the DVD’s cover at the following link. This title will be released on Tuesday, February 16, 2010.

— WWE has released the artwork for their forthcoming DVD set on Shawn Michaels’ greatest matches, Shawn Michaels: My Journey. You can view the cover at the following link. This three-disc set will be released on Tuesday, March 9, 2010.

— Since the story of Tyler Reks being removed from a flight yesterday morning broke out, Marc Lanciaux, a sound engineer for WWE who witnessed the ECW star behaving erratically, has removed all online posts he made concerning the matter.

— WWE’s return to the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas has been moved to Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 and changed to a Smackdown/ECW taping. The event was originally going to be a house show on Saturday, February 27th, 2010. (Thanks to Devin Cutting)

It would appear that Tyler Reks is in danger of being let go by World Wrestling Entertainment after a strange incident that took place during his flight home from Green Bay this morning — the site of last night’s SmackDown & ECW television tapings. Marc Lanciaux, a sound strange engineer who works for WWE, wrote “Nice knowing ya” to Reks on his Twitter account on Wednesday evening  and wrote a lengthy blog on his website detailing the bizarre incident he witnessed.

Sarcastically referencing Reks as ‘Einstein,’ he noted that ‘Einstein’ became terrified when he saw the airplane flap move just before takeoff. A worried Reks informed a flight attendant that he was a pilot himself and said that wasn’t supposed to happen. Feeling that the plane was unsafe, he raised his voice and became belligerent. Apparently feeling that he could be a disruption during the flight, flight staff had the plane return to the terminal in order to escort him off. But just before he got off the plane, Lanciaux claims Reks mumbled “that if anyone else on the plane didn’t want to die, they should get off the plane too.” The pilot then announced to the remaining passengers that the plane was indeed safe to fly.

Here is what Lanciaux wrote regarding the incident in question “This time, instead of a frightened teen running off the plane, one of ‘our guys,’ one of the new wrestlers that recently started traveling with the show walked out. Though I recognized him, he’s so new that I’m not sure what his name is. After today there’s probably no good reason to try and find out either. I will just call this unknown wrestler ‘Einstein.’ Turns out that Einstein was sitting near the wing, and out the window, witnessed a terrifying (to him) event. To his horror, one of the flaps that make the plane fly or land or whatever it is that those moving parts on the wing do… moved! GASP! After witnessing this, Einstein freaked out, telling the flight attendant that he was a pilot himself and he knew that wasn’t supposed to happen. He was sure the plane was unsafe. He started getting louder and louder, and more and more obnoxious. The decision was made. Time for Mr. Einstein to go bye-bye. Our flight turned around and my double date with both Ginger and Mary-Ann was ruined. On his way out the door, Einstein mumbled that if anyone else on the plane didn’t want to die, they should get off the plane too. I’m sure that the waiting TSA knuckle-draggers had a field day with this guy.”

You can read his blog post in its entirety at the following link.

Lanciaux then identified him by name on his Twitter account, cryptically writing: “Thank you Tyler Reks for not only delaying our flight, but also for providing me with blog material. Nice knowing ya.”

While Reks has not appeared on WWE programming since early November, he is still being flown to shows on a weekly basis. As of late, he has been trying out a new found heelish persona at live events and dark matches.